As computer technology has improved, the digital media industry has evolved greatly in recent years. Users are able to use media devices such as mobile communication devices (e.g., cellular telephones, smart phones, tablet computers, etc.) to consume music, video and other forms of media content. For instance, users can listen to audio content (e.g., music) and/or watch video content (e.g., movies, television (TV) broadcasts, etc.) on a variety of media devices.
At the same time, advances in network technology have increased the speed and reliability with which information can be transmitted over computers and other networks. It is therefore possible for users to stream media content over different networks as needed, or on demand, rather than receiving a complete file in physical media (such as a CD or a DVD, or downloading the entire file) before consuming the media content.
When streaming media content to a media device it sometimes happens that the streaming is disrupted due to poor network conditions. This causes the streaming of the media content to lag which is very annoying for users who are consuming the media content. Some streaming services therefore continuously pre-buffer a certain amount of data of the media item that is presently streamed. The pre-buffered data may then be played when there is a temporarily disruption in the network service. Thus, by using pre-buffering the user will not experience any lagging or delay in the streamed service.